From Within
by Sarah the nerd
Summary: Rory and Amy are trapped on a hostile world, the Doctor is imprisoned, and things can't get worse. And something terrible is lurking in the planet's caves...
1. Chapter 1

_I know your face and know your soul_  
_Fetch the coffin, dig the hole_  
_None of you are growing old,_  
_You'll lie beneath, your story told_  
_Eternal things will drag you down,_  
_I fear, my dear, we _own _this town._  
_So count the time as your heart beats_  
_While from within the monster eats._

**From Within**

A slap, an angry yell.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" screamed the tall boy, but none of the attackers seemed to hear or care. They pushed the raging girl into the dirt, and continued on their way.

Rory ran towards Amy and pulled her up.

"Those-" she was spitting, "Those..I'll _kill_-"

"Amy," Rory said, "come on, come with me, it's going to be alright." Currently it was far, far from alright. He led her away. In the distance, Amy's attackers were walking and laughing and not bothering to look back.

He led her to the Hole and helped her in. She winced as her feet hit the dirt, and Rory worried about that, it wasn't uncommon for the prisoners to have their feet whipped for the most minor of offences...

Also huddled in the Hole was a young girl, younger than Rory or Amy, blue-haired and weeping. Her name was Alya, they knew her as they knew all the others, all the prisoners, all the slaves.

"Alya," Rory asked, "are you ok?"

She turned her tear-streaked face to him. "Of course I'm not ok," she said. "That's a stupid question."

"She got you there," Amy said, sinking onto one of the planks of wood embedded in the mud. "Ignore her, unless she needs you. How long do we have?"

Rory looked at his watch, his twenty-first century watch, a present from his mother on his eighteenth birthday thousands of years ago. "Um, let's see, the guards won't reach our posts for...ten minutes? But it's the apprentices I'm thinking of, the ones who just..."

"Hit me," Amy finished.

"Yeah. Amy..."

"He's coming," Amy said. "He _will_."

"I know," Rory said, although in truth he didn't. He _hoped _the Doctor was coming, desperately hoped, but for now he was focusing on more practical things. "Amy, I should look at your feet."

"They're fine," she said, "just sore. We have ten minutes, right?"

"Yeah."

"Kiss me, then."

He did, even though Alya was watching.

* * *

Ten minutes later they were back at their posts, carefully ignoring each other. Rory was cleaning the insides of a rusty robot, Amy was digging holes for artifical trees.

The apprentices were wandering back.

"Alright, ginger girl," one of them called to Amy. "Marry me, and I'll take you out of here, and I won't hit you any more."

"I'm married already," Amy snarled. "Go to hell."

They laughed, one of them aimed a clump of mud in her direction, and they carried on.

As Amy and Rory stared angrily after them, an alarm sounded in the distance.

"Oh God," drifted a voice from another post, an old man watering the plants. Slowly, the people around Amy and Rory put down their tools and began to walk tiredly away, all forming one group heading for the courtyard.

"Come on, Amy," Rory said, "we have to go, if we don't..."

"Can't we go hide in the Hole again?"

"They always check it. Moonlight told me."

With a deep, sad sigh, Amy took her husband's hand.

"Maybe it won't be so bad this time," Rory said, although he knew he was only trying to reassure her. "I'll look after you, Amy, ok? I promise."

"I don't need looking after, remember? Not by anybody." Amy said, but she clung his hand so hard that it shook.

* * *

There was a stage in the courtyard, in front of the entrance to a dark, forbidding cave. It was the cave that everyone from the group of prisoners eyed with fear as they went past. Neither Amy nor Rory had been in there, but they knew the stories about it, that those who entered did not exit.

To the right of the stage was the building that housed the prison guards, named the Phoenix Building and guarded by the apprentices. It was large and forbidding, and Amy and Rory suspected that any prisoner sent there would not exit easily either. It was surrounded by huge stones, tributes, Amy and Rory had learned, to the people humans had killed in this war. To the left stretched out the prison camp, miles of mud and rocks and desert, current home of the Ponds, current hell.

A man stood on top of the stage, his goons and soldiers behind him, looking down at them all. He wasn't human- his skin had a green tint, he had more than ten fingers, and his hair was also green and looked like leaves- but Rory and Amy tended to refer to him as 'that man'. Sometimes in tones of anger and sometimes in tones of fear.

He was of the Forest. The Forest would one day evolve, into creatures more tree than human, but Amy and Rory weren't to know that. He was called Mort, Mort The Coming Son in fact, after Forest mythology, but if he spoke to a prisoner, they had to address him as 'General'. Now he was walking up and down on the stage, a pleased smile on his face, his eyes lingering just a little too long on Rory and Amy. He wore the ceremonal uniform of the Forest, leaves and coloured wood and pieces of bark displaying each letter of his name. Amy thought this seemed a grotseque parody of a nametag, like the one she had worn during her one-week job in Matalan.

"It carries on," Mort said. "You have drowned us and burned us and invaded our moons, you have killed _thousands _of us and we have killed less than one hundred of you!" He swept his hands out at the vast rows of tombstones. "But we continue, times will change! And the human race will be wiped from the galaxy."

No-one in the crowd below him spoke, the punishment would have been severe, but all were angry and some were shaking with fury, or terror. For the next words Mort said were, "I have the retirement notices here."

Amy clutched Rory's hand yet tighter, and while Rory knew that he and Amy were reasonably safe- well, maybe - he still felt dread in his heart.

"Moonlight Jones," said Mort, and a young woman a little ahead of Rory and Amy turned white and didn't move.

"_Moon. Light,_" snapped Mort, and slowly, so very slowly, the woman walked forward, climbed the stairs to the stage and, shaking, took the small piece of card. She knelt, tears pouring down her face, and although Amy and Rory had seen this once before they couldn't bear it...

"Lois Beth Jameson!" Mort yelled, and the same thing happened again, another shaking woman walked forward.

"Samuel Flane!" he yelled again, and a middle-aged man, hands in pockets, head slumped, devastatingly resigned look, ascended the stage.

"Rory," Amy whispered, "I can't..."

"I know," Rory whispered, "I know."

"These three people have disregarded the rules," Mort announced. "They shall be punished. _Watch_."

Amy closed her eyes, Rory closed his. But 'retirement' took an hour at the least, and although Amy had once kept her eyes jammed closed to escape the Weeping Angels, and although Rory had once spent a very long time being a robot, neither could keep their eyes closed completely, and every so often they'd open them and see flashes: the men leading the three condemned to the caves, pushing them in, blocking the entrance, fellow prisoners with their hands over their mouths, waiting-

After an hour and a half of standing there, legs quaking, hearts beating, there was a scream from the cave. Another fifteen minutes later and there was another voice, a man's voice, yelling, but they couldn't make out the words and wouldn't have wanted to. And then, finally, two hours and thirty-eight minutes after the whole thing had started, a final scream echoed around and the whole thing was over.

"Dismissed!" shouted Mort, who had passed the time painting a picture. "Back to your posts!" And as every prisoner turned, he added, "But not, I think, our little Ponds." And Amy and Rory stopped, hearts pounding.

Every other prisoner walked away, some of them even daring to shoot a look back. Amy and Rory were left alone with Mort and his men, all of whom were armed, and they felt so small and hopeless. Mort smiled, showing his red teeth.

"The Doctor likes you two," he said. "I find it odd. Perhaps because of his physical resemblance to humans? But whatever the reason, it is ill-advised. He begs me to return you both to him, to free you all, the most powerful thing in history _begs_. To me!"

Amy and Rory waited.

"The Doctor knows where to find something that I want," Mort continued, "and when I have it, you'll go free."

Neither of them said anything.

"Talk!" Mort snapped. "Grow a backbone, little humans, talk!"

"What is it that you want?" Rory asked.

"A weapon that will destroy Earth from the inside out," Mort answered. "The Osterhagen key."

"We've never heard of it," Amy said.

"Really? Well, that's what your lives are worth. You, both of you, free if the Doctor gives up the key."

"But he won't," Rory said, without even really thinking, as Amy tensed beside him. "The Doctor would never help anyone destroy Earth, not even to save his friends."

"And you're sure of that?"

"Yeah," Rory said, suddenly uncertain, wishing or dreading. "Yeah...I'm sure. Completely sure."

"So we're just going to have to tough it out," Amy said, "and both of us are _tough_."

Mort smiled. "Fair enough. You're assigned to different posts as of today. You-" he pointed to Amy, "-will be working below ground on the sewers."

Amy flinched.

"_You_," he said to Rory, "will be on security."

"No-" Amy began, but Mort just grinned.

"We'll see if he will ever come for you," he said. "If he'll give up an entire planet, and the millions who live there, for Amy and Rory Pond."

* * *

The Doctor had been tied to a chair to stop him intervening with the Retirement. They'd done it before. They'd used special rope, supposed to be unbreakable, and left him to watch the goingson.

Now they came to untie him.

"I'll never, ever help you," he said as they pushed him to the floor. "You say you've heard all about me, well, many people have. But clearly you haven't heard _much_. Earth is under my protection. Any planet at risk from hostile, violent idiots is under my protection. Any people who send innocents to their death, I fight those people! And I win! Understand?"

"Your friends are still down there, Doctor," said Mort, as the Doctor rose. "In pain, in desperation, waiting for you to come and save them."

"Both my friends are good at waiting."

"That's as may be. But they'll probably die."

The Doctor paused, uncertainity in his eyes. "Well. I don't think they will."

"Brave words. No conviction behind them. You like your friends. You don't want them to die. Give me the key, and they won't. You're the Oncoming Storm! You can do anything, do this!"

"No," said the Doctor.

"They don't have long."

"Between them they've had a good few centuries," the Doctor said, "and they have more to come. Don't underestimate Amy and Rory. I never have."


	2. Chapter 2

**From Within**

Amy and Rory lay side by side in the tent they shared with twenty other people. Most of the others were asleep, and the two of them talked in whispered voices.

"I hate it here," Amy said. "I hate it, I hate watching people go to their deaths and not being able to stop it!"

"I know," said Rory.

"But I don't want the Doctor to sell out the entire earth for us! It's not right, it's not...it's _stupid_...but..."

Around them people snored and shifted.

"Do you think we'll die here?" Amy asked. She had never asked it before, and she sounded so sad, so grown up.

"No," Rory said. "No, I won't let you die. Even if it kills me, Amy, I won't."

Amy sighed. "You're so noble," she said sadly. "And you need to stop it now before you get yourself killed."

They lay there in silence.

"I have two sets of memories," Amy said at last, "and..."

"And what?"

"And I remember, I was about eight or nine, and it was only me. Because Mum and Dad were...you know...and Aunt Sharon was never around. And I went to the park, by myself, and I was swinging on the swings, and I was swinging so high, and I fell, and it _hurt_. Really hurt. And no-one was there. And I just stayed there crying for ages, and eventually I just had to pick myself up and walk back."

"Oh, Amy."

"But then of course it didn't happen like that and I went to the park with Mum and Dad and fell off the swing and they were right there. But...it feels like that first time! When I fell and no-one came at all."

"I'm here now, Amy," Rory said, taking her hand.

"I know."

* * *

"Tell me, Doctor," said Mort, "how did you arrive here?"

The Doctor was speaking to him through the locked door, missing the sonic screwdriver and working on a plan.

"Rory decided he would bring his Wii on board the TARDIS," he said.

"A curious beginning to this story."

"We were playing it. We were enjoying ourselves. And then this light came, and it took us away, and I wasn't happy, although I suppose I am used to it by now. I was in a cave, and Amy and Rory...weren't."

"Continue."

"I remember that something about the caves was strange...but then, that was it, I woke up here. With what I think may be very important memories completely gone."

"And you're working on a plan to escape this place."

"Yes. Yes, I am. You won't like it, Mort the Coming Son, you _won't_."

Mort just laughed. "The funny thing about that story is that you surround yourself with such worthless, pointless people. The whole of the universe at their feet! The whole timeline, everything that ever was! And they'd rather play video games!"

"Well," said the Doctor, rising from his position, although Mort couldn't see this, "I think it shows their humanity, myself. They have all that stuff, all that astounding stuff, but they still want the comforts of home. Games. Telly. Computers. A marriage."

Mort snorted.

"And I own every Super Mario game that was ever invented, so there," the Doctor said.

* * *

The next day Amy was sent to the sewers, and Rory was sent to Security, a small hut on the edge of the prison camp where the helpless 'volunteer guards' shot the things that occasionally approached the place. The weapons were old, the things (whatever they were, no-one seemed willing to talk about it much) were vicious, and maimings were not uncommon.

"Bye," Amy whispered as the alarms sounded, telling everyone to get to their posts or face the consequences.

"Bye," Rory said nervously. "See you in the evening."

"Yes," Amy said fiercely, "see you in the evening."

Both turned and ran away; had they looked back they'd have been tempted not to go, to stay with each other instead, and the result would have been terrible.

* * *

Rory found Alya at the hut, her and one other. She shot him a glum, angry look, and gave him a gun.

"I've never used one of these before," Rory said.

"You'll get used to it," she answered.

Rory didn't think he would. He had only ever used one gun, and that was the one that had been embedded in his hand all that time ago. "Um. What, exactly, do we do?"

"Shoot whatever comes near, no matter what it is."

"And if it's people? I don't want to shoot another person."

Alya gave a little smile. "You have no problem with shooting animals, though, right?"

"I'd rather not, but...if I have to."

"You'll be in with a surprise when the Green show up," she said, a sad, mad smile on her face.

"The Green?" Rory asked, but Alya had turned away and said nothing.

Another woman, standing at the front with the biggest gun, shook her head. Rory had seen her before, her name was Irene.

"We get one of them a day, maybe two," she said. "Keep shooting and they go down."

"Wait, what are they exactly?" Rory asked. "Animals, right?"

"Yes," said Irene, after a pause, "they're animals, and they're very very dangerous, and if just one of them reaches us it'll tear out our eyes and eat them, and we'll die in pain while it laughs."

"But they aren't as bad as humans are," said Alya.

* * *

Amy held her scarf (she had been allowed to keep the clothes she'd arrived in) over her mouth and nose as she was led down into the sewers. She was following a man, Alecath was his name. He didn't look entirely human to her, and she wondered if he had been locked in the camp for different reasons entirely.

"This all is quite simple, really," said Alecath as he helped her down. "We work, we shovel and we scrub, and we try not to think about the smell."

"There's just two of us?" Amy asked.

"It's a two-person job."

Amy took the shovel he handed her, and paused. "What happened to the last person who worked with you on this two-person job, then?"

"Died," the old man said. "At the last retirement. Her name was Moonlight."

"Oh," Amy said sadly.

"And the one before that," Alecath said, wearily, "died when a pipe broke and she drowned. So be careful."

* * *

"Come with me, Oncoming Storm," said Mort, five armed men backing him up. "I have something to show you."

For a minute the Doctor thought about overpowering him somehow, hitting him hard and running away, but he knew that would be just foolish. Mort smiled nastily and closed his fingers around his gun.

The Doctor followed him through dark corridors to a brightly lit room, where several screens, seemingly made of leaves, hung on the wall and control equipment littered the floor. Mort took the controls and pressed buttons, and the Doctor saw that the way out was blocked by men with weapons.

"You'll never have the key," he said to the tree-man, "and killing me won't help."

"Watch what happens next," Mort said, and turned the screens on.

* * *

"There's security cameras down here," Amy observed. Alecath was leading her further underground, through dripping pipes and foul-smelling puddles.

"Yes," he said, "they're everywhere."

"But down here? Do they work?"

Alecath shrugged, and Amy thought longingly of the Doctor, who would have simply raised the screwdriver and popped out all the cameras, and grinned, and saved them all. She gripped the shovel tight.

Something went drip, drip, drip...

* * *

Another security camera, this one in the guard hut, was training its all-seeing eye on Rory and the others.

"What sort of animals, exactly, are the Green?" Rory asked nervously.

"What do you mean?" asked Alya.

"Are they...I dunno..are they like elephants? Lions? What are they like?"

Alya gave a mocking laugh and turned away. This did nothing to improve Rory's confidence, and he felt his hands shaking, and cursed himself for it.

"I used to be a soldier," he said to no-one in particular. "And I just about remember it all, the things I did."

Alya, her back to him, shook her head and drew her weapon. "A soldier? Have you ever _killed_ anyone?"

"Once," Rory said, remembering and feeling sick. "Nearly. Sort of."

"They're coming. Two of them." said Irene. "Aim."

* * *

"Stop," Amy said. "Alecath, stop!"

He did.

"I hear dripping," Amy said, "like from a broken pipe. And I really, really, really don't want to drown in sewage, that is not the way I want to go!"

* * *

Two strange, almost humanoid creatures were running towards them, and Rory raised the gun and aimed-

"Oh no," said Irene.

Rory understood the tone of voice, understood it all too well, and looked in the direction she was looking. Another creature was coming at them from a different angle, running strangely, limping-

He swallowed. And then he turned again, and there was another.

"There are never this many!" screamed Irene. "Never!"

The first two were coming closer, and Rory could see why they called them the Green. Because they were green. Because they were _rotting_.

"What are they?" he screamed.

"Oh, shut up!" yelled Alya, and she began firing blindly. Yet another one appeared, coming out from behind a rock, there were five now...

Irene shot one of them. A bloody hole appeared in its torso, but it kept running and then it jumped. It landed on her, and she screamed, all of them screamed-

* * *

The security camera was recording it all, in horrifying detail, every scream and shout, and the last noise Irene made.

"No!" yelled the Doctor, and he tried to leave the room, but the men with guns pushed him back.

* * *

"Stick with me," Alecath whispered urgently, "and you won't drown."

"What does the dripping mean?"

"It means that somewhere down here a pipe is leaking, and it's about to burst and flood this place, and _follow me and run_!"

She ran along with him, through a dark passageway in the side of a tube, and she heard a crash of waves and water...

Alecath grabbed her hand.

"Run, girl, run faster!"

She tried. But her legs were tired, every day she was tired, because every day she worked til she nearly dropped.

"Run!" screeched Alecath.

They turned a corner and there was a ladder. Alecath stood back and let Amy go up first.

"Hurry!" he said.

Amy climbed the ladder, she seemed to be safe, and in one awful moment she felt nothing but crushing relief that her own skin had been saved. And then the filthy, foul water came cascading down the passageway, churning the mud, crashing down on Alecath...

"No!" screamed Amy. A hand rose from the water, and Amy lunged for it, but within seconds it had sunk again.

"No," she said again. And then she swore, furiously, and swiped her tears away.

Her hand clutched the rusty rung of the ladder, and the water that had just taken away a nice old man splashed and soaked her shoes and feet. She pulled herself to the top of the ladder and let herself out. She lay, gasping and crying, on the sand for a bit. People were dying all around her, it seemed. She had faced so much, she'd died and come back, she'd helped save the universe, and she couldn't save _anybody _here.

"Rory!" she said out loud.

She ran, limping.

* * *

Alya shoved Rory to the side and shot one of the creatures. It fell with a horrible scream.

"They're zombies!" Rory shouted in bewilderment. "That's what they are, zombies, real zombies!"

"Would you get it together, you idiot!" Alya shrieked, and shot another.

Rory attempted to get it together. He _had _been a soldier, a Roman soldier with a gun in his hand, he'd fought off treasure-hunters and invaders and wild animals, he could only remember it like a dream, and he desperately wished for a kind of regeneration. He wished that badass-Roman-Rory would suddenly appear and take all the creatures down, not breaking a sweat, didn't _have_ a sweat, he could do it!

"Alya!" he shouted. And he spun around and shot, and got one, and he didn't have time to even think about what he'd done-

-and another one jumped and landed on him.

He screamed like the helpless human he was pretty sure he was, and not the man of legend he'd once been, and in one split second he _almost_ accepted his third death in a row, when Alya shot the monster and it slumped down against him.

Rory saw its face and screamed again.

* * *

"Stop it!" yelled the Doctor, face and hands pale. "Two are dead! Two innocent people! Shouldn't that be enough! Stop!"

"No," said Mort.

"Untie me! Let me go!"

"No."

The Doctor struggled, and Mort just said calmly, "This is your doing. Give us the key!"

"No," said the Doctor. "No. I can't."

* * *

Amy ran, past the caves, towards her husband, thinking of the times when everything was okay and there was _adventure_, not this sort of thing...

* * *

"It's her!" Rory screamed. "Moonlight! She's dead! She's _dead_!"

Alya pulled the corpse away.

"Yes," she said, "she came back, they all do."

"_Came back_?"

One more monster, this one the rotting body of Lois Beth Jameson, lept over the fences and landed in a heap on the floor, drooling and snarling. Rory and Alya both reached for their guns, fired, and the poor, poor creature lay still.

"That's all of them," Alya gasped. "There have never been so many, never!"

"Why today?" Rory said, leaning on the wall to steady himself. He couldn't look at the bodies, there were six in total, all had human faces, some he recognized, and he felt sick.

"They only send people they don't like to Security, they're hoping they'll get killed." Alya panted. "Maybe they really, really don't like you!"

"They-"

"_Rory_!" someone yelled.

Rory turned to see Amy, covered in mud, running towards him. He ran towards her and they squashed into a hug, a messy and frantic hug.

"What happened?" Rory asked, almost shouting.

"There was a flood, and Alacath's dead, drowned."

"Oh God."

"What happened here?"

"Zombies," Rory said, and the word seemed downright laughable, but Amy didn't laugh, she was crying.

"Zombies! Zombies, of course, zombies!" She let Rory go. "I _want the Doctor_!"

Rory said nothing.

"He'll come. Won't he? He'll sort all this out."

Rory thought she was talking about him like she'd talk about a father, maybe, possibly. But that little stab of jealousy made him feel rotten and ashamed.

"Yes," he said hopelessly.

Amy gave a sort of heartbreaking little howl, that hurt Rory to see it, and then she stood up and put on another face. The heroine, the world-saving girl, the Doctor's companion even if there wasn't a Doctor.

"We have to do what he would do. He's coming, I know, but in the meantime we have to get out of here. You. Me. All of us. 'Cos that lot will never let us go alive."

"What should we do?" Rory asked, and he _longed _for that other person, that Lone Centeurion Legend Rory, to take over his body and soul once again. "We need a plan."

Amy nodded, and he wondered if she really, truly believed the Doctor was coming. Would Amy, wearing any face, wait for the Doctor to save her and do nothing herself? Not ever, surely. Amy's faith wasn't blind, but oh, they needed the Doctor.

Amy went into the guardhouse and Rory followed. Alya was sitting on the floor amongst the bodies, and Rory felt guilty, he'd left her there.

Alya looked up.

"We'll all become one of these," she said, touching the skin of one of the rotting dead. "When we go into the caves, this is what we'll come out as, and we'll all go in."

Rory and Amy waited, skin crawling, hearts beating.

"I heard you. Give me a plan," said Alya.

"There isn't one yet," Amy said. "The Doctor will save us...or we'll save ourselves. We need to-"

Alya suddenly jumped up and shot the security camera. In a shower of golden sparks it fell from the wall.

"Um, thanks," said Rory.

"We need to think of something," Amy said. "If the Doctor's even on this planet, we need to free him, and he can bring Mort down."

Alya looked at her curiously. "You think _he _can save us, this man who's been captured and imprisoned and relies on his friends to save him?"

"Yes," Amy said fiercely. "He can do anything."

"Also," Rory said thoughtfully, "he's not exactly a man."

Alya shrugged.

"Alya, you've been here longer than us," Amy said. "If you know _anything_, anything at all about how we might, I don't know, get into the Phoenix Building or something..."

"I'll see what I can do," Alya said. "But I promise nothing."

* * *

"_The Doctor will save us,_" said Amy onscreen, "_or we'll save ourselves_."

"How about some highlights of your friends facing death?" Mort asked. With a smirk he wound back the videos, and Amy fled for her life once again, and Rory was nearly killed by a human-like monster. Again and again and again it happened, and Mort's smile growing wider all the time.

The Doctor's eyes flashed.

"Now," said Mort, "tell me, Doctor, what use are emotions if you won't save the people you love?"

"I've heard something like that before," said the Doctor, "a very long time ago."

Mort said nothing, just smiled, a knowing smile.

"The Key?"

"You know," the Doctor said, "there's something you don't know about me, about Time Lords."

"What's that?"

"We have long memories." He was still tied to the chair, but he seemed suddenly different, sort of...far-away. Alien and fantasy. "I remember _so very much_. I remember Sarah's favourite band, Jamie's favourite colour, Susan's favourite book. I remember the times I loved Rose Tyler and the times I didn't, I remember the noise when Adelaide Brook shot herself, and I remember Amy remembering me- and I know who you are."

"Really," said Mort.

"Yes," said the Doctor.

The two of them looked at each other. And then the Doctor smiled.

"Jamie's favourite colour was blue," he said, "but you wouldn't know that, would you?"


	3. Chapter 3

**From Within**

The next day it rained, the first rain for ages, but Amy ventured into the Hole nonetheless, praying no guards or apprentices would notice, and they didn't seem to.

Before long, Alya joined her.

"Why aren't you on Security?" Amy asked. "Rory! Where's Rory?"

"Relax," said Alya. "They've reassigned me, just not your husband."

"He's there alone?"

"Yeah. But he tells me he used to be a soldier."

"He did," Amy said. "He was a _really good one_."

"I'll take your word for it. Today, I'm fixing up Mort's uniform." And she reached into a little bag she was carrying and produced the letters M, T, C and S. She gave a little smile. "Do you know what I have to do?"

"What?"

"I have to put one drop of my blood on every letter of his name. To represent the blood of humans he's spilled."

"Oh God, Alya..." But she had to change the subject. "What about Rory?"

"He's fine!"

Amy sighed. "Okay. Okay, fine. You were gonna tell me something, right?"

"Yeah. About getting into the Phoenix."

"You know a way?"

"Sort of. Back in the old days, when things were a tiny, tiny bit less nasty, people were assigned there. They went in the back way, I don't know if it's still there, this was years ago. And I never went. But I thought, if you sneaked away during the Retirement, or something...maybe find the back entrance, maybe go in?"

Amy considered this. "Sounds dangerous."

"Well, you seem to be the dangerous type."

Amy nodded, thinking familiar thoughts, feeling what she had been feeling the day she freed the Star Whale. "I am. So's Rory. So's the Doctor."

"Well, good. Because there have been escape attempts before." Alya took Amy's note from her pocket and gave it back to her. On the back was a crude map of the compound and the Phoenix. "I handed it around, asked people to draw what they knew. Most of them don't believe you can do it, and I'm not sure either, but..."

"Thank you," Amy said. She put the paper in her pocket and said, "I _can _do it. At the next Retirement, me and Rory will get away and break in, alright? I can save you! I can save you all."

"Slow down there, hero," Alya said sadly. "Good luck."

* * *

The next Retirement came soon, and Amy and Rory were gathered up when they tried to hide behind a rock, and they clung to each other as Mort read the names out. Theirs were not on the list.

Two apprentices came and wrenched them apart.

"Behave, lovebirds! Or you'll be next in there."

The four poor people chosen were forced inside the cave, and the waiting begun again. Amy had of course filled Rory in on everything, and she saw him mouth, "How do we escape?"

"Distraction?" Amy whispered.

"How have you not thought this through?" he whispered back. And it was true, she hadn't, really. She had thought they'd get an oppotunity to hide behind the tombstones, and make their way to the Phoenix undetected, but no opportunity was coming.

She cursed herself. Stupid little Amy, stupid little Amelia, she'd learned so little!

Alya poked her in the back.

"I'll give you a distraction," she whispered, a weird grin on her face, and before Amy could stop her she dived forward through the crowds and screamed, "Stop! Stop this madness! This madness must end!"

All eyes turned to her, all the guards drew their guns, and Mort retreated quickly, ducking behind the stage and out of sight. Amy grabbed Rory's hand and ran blindly, as others did. Suddenly chaos was everywhere, and Alya stood in the middle.

"Shoot me where I stand!" screamed Alya, and gunfire ran out as Rory and Amy ducked behind the biggest stone. They remained there, waiting, waiting for gunfire in their direction, but none came.

"Oh God," Amy whispered. "She did that for us!"

Rory was shaking.

"And it was my fault!"

"No," Rory said, "no, it wasn't, that was her choice!"

The guards were angrily gathering people up. Peering out from behind the tombstone, Amy and Rory saw Alya's body being kicked away.

"They're gonna notice we're gone," Rory whispered. "Hurry!" And although his heart broke at the thought that a girl had just died for them, he led Amy away, ducking between the tombstones, hiding amongst the dead.

* * *

Mort walked through the corridors, shrugging off his ceremonial uniform, shredding leaves. He reached the Doctor's room- he was once again tied up with the unbreakable rope- and burst in.

"Your friends," he said to the Doctor. "They're on their way. Coming to save you. Such noble and useless creatures!"

The Doctor just smiled.

"You can't beat them. You can't beat me. Not now I know who you are," he said.

"I'll throw them to the caves!"

The Doctor's smile faded.

"Right," he said. "Did I mention, Mort The Coming Son, that I have a really clever plan?"

* * *

Treading quietly, Amy and Rory reached the back door. They could hear faint noises from the camp behind them; it sounding like the remaining prisoners were being ordered to return to their work.

"I thought they'd be more guards," Rory said. "I mean, I didn't want there to be, I just thought we'd have to do more sneaking past them, I think we're getting good at the sneaking, and I'm rambling cos I'm scared."

Amy squeezed his hand.

"Let's get to the door," she said, and together they ran towards it. Neither of them expected it to be open, but it was, and they stumbled inside.

Inside it was dark, and no-one was there. There was the drip-drip of water, which made Amy tense, but it seemed to be coming from a tap. The place was quite wet, and muddy, a good environment for a plant-

"Leaves," Amy said. "A trail of leaves."

Both looked at them. Rory bent down and nervously picked one up.

"Like, um, breadcrumbs," he said, and both of them thought of fairytales and all the ones they'd lived already.

* * *

"Yes," said Mort, "you're full of really clever plans, aren't you, Doctor?"

"I am a bit."

"So sure of your own intelligence and _goodness_."

"Actually, it's other people's goodness I'm relying on this time," said the Doctor. And then he smiled. "You really don't know what you are. Do you?"

"Yes!" snapped Mort. "I am of the Forest, and human beings tried to destroy my people! They killed thousands! I, Mort The Coming Son, will have my revenge on them, these creatures who attempted to wipe out my race! _I am the destroyer_-"

"-_of worlds_," finished the Doctor.

Mort stared in surprise but the Doctor only smiled.

"The Coming Son," he said. "So, who are your parents?"

* * *

"I can't stop thinking about what Alya did," said Rory.

"Me neither," Amy said.

They walked, following the leaves, through dark and dripping corridors.

"After this-" Rory began.

"Yeah?"

"D'ya want to...you know...go home for a bit?"

Amy thought about this. "You mean Leadworth?"

"That's our home."

"Yeah," Amy said. "I do. I miss my parents."

"Me too."

With that said, they walked on.

"What should we do when we find the Doctor?" Rory asked.

"We save him."

"He'll be surrounded by guns..."

Amy paused and said, "Rory..."

"What?"

She shook her head angrily. "Just don't die! Don't get in the way of anything!"

And they walked and walked, and the corridor stretched on, and Rory thought of his first proper death. It had been like a long, dark corridor (he thought. Like many of his memories, this one was only just there) and at the end, Amy was waiting, Amy and the Doctor, and he'd run and run towards them, seeing the blurry bright orange of Amy's hair, wanting so much to be alive again...

* * *

"I am the Son of the Forest! The one who will save us all, who will lead my glorious race to triumph! Over all!"

"Really," said the Doctor.

"My race should take its rightful place, as the leaders and rulers of the world!"

"Oh dear."

"Do you understand me?"

"Yes," said the Doctor. "I do. But you still haven't answered my question. Who's your mother? Who's your father?"

* * *

At the end of the corridor there were a pile of clothes. Mort's.

Amy knelt down and picked them up. Bits of tangled leaf and flower she put aside, and then she picked up the letters that spelt Mort's name.

"Alya had to put a drop of blood on each of these," she said. "What a way to spend your last hours." She felt like crying.

Rory put his hands on her shoulders as Amy threw the letters to the ground. A spot of blood was on each, O, N, C, M, S...

Something was at the back of his brain and trying to fight its way up.

"Amy," he said.

Amy looked at the letters on the floor. Whatever was dawning on him was dawning on her too, a name she'd heard once rising to the surface. Slowly, she reached out and took some of the bloodstained pieces, and then she said,

"Oh."

Rory understood too. Between them they arranged the letters on the dirty, wet floor. When they were done, the letters of Mort's name spelt out something different...

THE ONCOMING STORM, was what it said.


	4. Chapter 4

**From Within**

"Oh," said Amy, and then she swore.

"No, it can't be," Rory said. "It's a coincidence..."

"Come on! How many coincidences have there been since we were here?

"Well, okay, so Mort's..."

"The Doctor!" Amy snapped. "We've seen this before! He's another form of the Doctor! Or something!"

"Oh, what little faith you have," came a voice.

Both of them looked up as Mort came towards them, dragging the Doctor from the room he'd been in.

"So quick to assume that there's so much evil in me."

"Hello, Amy. Hello, Rory," said the Doctor. "I'm afraid he_ is _a part of me. Sorry about that."

"Yes," said Mort, who was breathing heavily. "It seems I _am_. No parents! No home! No _friends._"

Amy and Rory looked at each other and simultaniously decided it was worth a shot.

"We're your friends," Rory said.

"Yeah," Amy said. "You always were my friend, remember?"

Mort laughed in their faces. "Nice try! But I don't want you, either of you. Doctor!"

"Yeah," said the Doctor, "I'm afraid this ends here." And he actually punched Mort in the face, which was such an atypical thing for him that Amy and Rory were temporarily stunned too. Mort fell against the wall, and the Doctor grabbed Rory.

"Sorry about this-"

Before any of them could react he'd pushed Rory's hand against Mort's forehead.

"What're you doing?" yelled Amy. Rory, bewildered, kept his hand there- and then pulled it back.

"It's burning!" he yelled.

Mort grinned nastily, reached up, and grabbed Rory's hand once again.

"No, no, it's burning, stop! _Stop_!"

He screamed, and Amy tried to shove Mort aside, but he was too hot to touch.

"LET HIM GO!" the Doctor roared, as Amy tried to pull Rory away. "LET HIM GO, OR-"

"Or what?" Mort asked, and he let Rory go. He fell to the floor, his hand blackened and smoking, Amy turning pale at the sight of it.

The Doctor stood in front of his friends and faced Mort down.

"There's only one way we can do this," the Doctor said.

"Doctor," Amy was shouting, "Doctor, he needs an ambulance!"

"Do your worst, Doctor," Mort said. "And there aren't any ambulances here, you stupid stupid girl."

"Don't call her stupid," the Doctor said. He advanced towards Mort, fear on his face, a man without a plan. "What now, then? Tell me."

Rory tried to say something, but then passed out from the pain.

"Doctor!" Amy screamed.

"You know what?" Mort said. "Time Lord powers, they're _brilliant_."

He snapped his fingers, and the Doctor, Amy and Rory were gone.

* * *

They reappeared in a prison cell.

"Doctor," Amy said hysterically, "we have to help him!" She had her arms around her husband.

"It'll be okay, Amy, I promise. Just wait until he comes around and give him water...okay, there's no water here. But he'll be fine, I promise."

"How can you say that, why'd you let Mort touch him?" She was screaming now.

"Well," the Doctor said, and he seemed ashamed, "Mort is evil. I think we've established that, he's _quite _evil."

"Yeah-"

"And your husband is good. I told you once, the darkness in you and Rory...there isn't any, you can make evil things starve. I thought, if Mort gets a taste of goodness, maybe..."

"You let your evil double_ feed _on my husband!"

"Well, in a way. I'm sorry."

Amy carefully laid Rory on the ground and went to the cell door. She banged on it.

"You're good too," she said, inbetween bangs. "Why didn't you touch him?"

"Amy, Mort came from me. He's all my darkness made real, like the Dream Lord. Everything he did and said were things I could have done or said. I'm not good, Amy, not like my friends are."

"Don't be so stupid!"

"I've done terrible things, Amy, things I'll never mention."

"Shut up, you're good, I know you are!"

As if in response to her hitting it, the door flew open and Mort was there. He was back in his uniform, and so covered with Alya's blood. The sight of this infuriated Amy still more, and she moved towards him, but with a twitch of his fingers Mort forced the Doctor and Amy to the back of the room.

"So I am a Time Lord," he said thoughtfully, "but my alligance is still to the Forest. To think what I can do for them now!"

"No," the Doctor said fiercely.

"Doctor! Come with me. We're going to kill the prisoners. And then we'll take the Osterhagen key from the past, take it from Martha Jones as she tries to put it back, and destroy Earth! Think of all that power. All that _freedom_. Isn't that what you want sometimes? To be free? Why should a creature so powerful be bound by emotions?"

The Doctor was silent.

"Martha Jones' phone number is on your phone, Doctor. Call her. Tell you...you changed your mind." And he took a phone from his pocket and waved it in the air.

"No."

"Doctor! Your destiny awaits."

"I will _never _help you murder innocents."

"Well," said Mort, "it was worth a shot. You'll watch! Say goodbye!"

He pulled the Doctor through the air, out of the room, and the door slammed shut before Amy had a chance to speak. She turned back to her husband, observed his burned and ruined hand, and wept.

* * *

_You're good, I know you are..._

The Doctor was dragged by Mort down the corridor, wondering what to do, remembering the words _I don't want to go_. His last words, some of Rory's last as well. He was pretty sure he was going to die, and on the whole he was alright about it, he just wished for strange things. River, she was one. Amy and Rory, of course, were another. He thought of all the people he'd never meet, all the weddings he'd never attend...

* * *

Rory came around.

"What happened?" he asked

Amy explained as best, and as gently, as she could. Gentleness was not a strong suit of hers but for Rory she did it.

"How many evil doubles of himself has the Doctor _got_?" Rory asked, still wincing from the pain.

"Apparently, lots," Amy said.

"Amy," Rory said, "I don't want to, um, worry you...but...I'm sort of in pain, lots of pain."

"I know," Amy said desperately. "But it'll be ok, I promise."

"I think this may be a bit of an impediment to me being a nurse..."

Amy realised that for a long time Rory had never mentioned his job or that he planned to go back to it. But she had little time to think about it, because the floor had started to shake.

"Amy," said Rory, "is the floor shaking, or is that just me?"

"No," she said, "it's not just you..."

The floor opened up and they both fell.

* * *

The Doctor was tied up on the little stage, and the prisoners were called.

"Right!" Mort screamed, waving his gun. "Every time the Doctor refuses to hand over the weapon I need, one of you will die."

The Doctor looked out at all of them, at Alya's body still crumpled on the ground.

"Actually," he said loudly, "none of that's going to happen."

* * *

"Oh God, we're in the caves!" Amy whispered. "Rory! Rory!"

Rory still seemed to be only just concious. "What?"

"We're _there_, in the caves, we've got to get out!"

"They dropped us into the caves?"

"Yes!"

Rory got up, slowly, and steadied himself against the wall. In addition to his hand, his head was now bleeding too. "Oh God. Amy, you remember what Alya said..."

"_Yes, I remember what she said_! Come on, you stupid, stupid man!" She grabbed his working hand and started to run, through caverns and through darkness, in blind panic-

A voice rang out.

"_I know your face and know your soul_," it said in a snarling tone. "_Fetch the coffin, dig the hole_!"

Amy and Rory stopped dead, and through the darkness they saw a pinprick of bright light, growing bigger.

"Amy," Rory said, "what's that?"

"I don't know!" she said, and the thing was talking over them. "..._eternal things will drag you down!_"

"What are you?" Amy screamed.

_"I fear, my dear, we own this town."_

"Amy, I love you," Rory said.

"Don't start saying that, don't you dare start saying that!"

_"Count the time while your heart beats...WHILE FROM WITHIN, THE MONSTER EATS_!"

And the light split into two, and two smiling, glowing, almost angelic creatures were there, and looking into their eyes was like looking into a black hole.

"What are you?" Amy screamed again.

_"Freedom"_, answered the creatures. And then one of them swooped down and grabbed her, and she didn't even have time to scream "I love you too," to her husband.


	5. Chapter 5

**From Within**

Down in the prison courtyard, the people were afraid.

"Yes," the Doctor said, "none of those things will happen."

"I think they will, actually," snarled Mort. "You've lost." And in that instant the Doctor thought he looked a little like the Dream Lord, just with brighter colours. Had he looked like that before? The Doctor couldn't remember.

"No, that's the thing, I haven't," he said. "Because I noticed something while you were dragging me here, that stuff you've got on you isn't blood."

* * *

Amy awoke in her old bedroom, and expected to see Rory, or to see her parents maybe. But she didn't. And then she remembered where she was, and was on her guard right away. By the door lurked the Freedom angel, blending seamlessly in like it had always been there.

"This is my house, isn't it?" she yelled at it. "What did you do with Rory?"

But it said nothing, and she looked around and realised it might not be her old bedroom after all. The floor was littered with toys, toys she'd never had, and the wallpaper had changed and the furniture had changed. The television was blaring downstairs. And there were photos on the wall, her and Rory's wedding photos, and another...

A picture of her, or she thought it was her, and Rory, and two children.

"Oh," she said. And to the angel, "I've _been _through this! I know it isn't real! It may be nice but..."

The angel tilted its head as if to say, "but?"

"Let me go!"

She looked at the photo and was startled by her own face, it was a desperate and saddened woman looking out. That wasn't what she looked like, she'd never looked like that. And then the angel spoke.

_"Hug your children, kiss your man_  
_You're dead but do the best you can_  
_You've got your prince, you've had your life_  
_That star-loved girl is someone's wife._  
_And though you wage a private war_  
_You're no-one's hero anymore._  
_Shut up, sit down, and watch repeats,_  
_While from within the monster eats."_

Infuriated, Amy yelled, "It's not like that, it's never like that!"

The angel just smiled and said nothing, and Amy thought she felt it, the crushing hopelessness, but she didn't know if it was her or the angel doing it. She looked at the pictures of the children. Two boys, she thought, one with red hair and one with reddish-brown. And then she went to the window and looked out at Leadworth, and it looked so very grey and dark, and the inside of her heart felt the same.

_

* * *

_

_"Wake up, mechanical man_,_" _said a cold and distant voice.

Rory awoke and found he was on a sofa, and his hand was healed. He stared around with a sinking feeling.

"This...again...huh?" he said, and nearly choked on those casually heroic words.

The angel by the front door gave a smile.

_"Two thousand years, but why, and how?_  
_For she goes out without you now._  
_You think you have your life to spend_  
_When death's as close as summer's end_  
_The clouds will soon eclipse the sun,_  
_You can't save her, or anyone._  
_It's him who she loves, him she meets,_  
_While from within the monster eats."_

Rory looked at it and it looked back.

"That's not going to work," he said, and those words he didn't choke on.

* * *

The Doctor watched Mort as he tried to make sense of the words.

"What do you mean, it's not blood?" he finally spluttered. "I took it from that human girl there, back when she breathed!"

"Yes, about that," the Doctor said, "She's not human."

"What?"

"She's an Auton."

* * *

Rory faced the angel.

"_Why?_" it asked.

"Because I've had two thousand years to think about it!"

"_Two thousand years, and she calls you stupid and longs for the Doctor_."

"That's what it sounds like but that's not what it is. I know Amy, I know her better than anyone, I know she loves me."

"_You follow her and accept her praise and her scoldings like a dog_!"

"No I don't."

"_She loves another_!"

"No she doesn't."

For the first time the angel, a being of infinite power and darkness, looked annoyed.

"_I offer you freedom, freedom from your bonds to an undeserving one_!"

"Why would I want freedom from Amy, I'm married to her!"

"_I see your soul and feelings-_"

"I get jealous sometimes, but I know I don't have anything to worry about, not really, we've been through too much. You don't know _anything _about humans, do you? How really really complex and confusing they are."

The angel sort of flickered, as if about to flash out of the world forever.

"Go away," Rory said nervously, wondering what sorts of things it could do to him. "Bring Amy back and put things right."

The angel started to fade, but it seemed unable to resist a parting shot. "_Human! You have been an immortal, you have vanished from existance and been put back, you have waited for centuries as reality collapsed! And now you live a mortal life, remembering your legend only as if in dreams! I could have made you more, Rory Williams!_"

"It's Rory Pond, actually," Rory said. "But thank you?"

* * *

Amy walked down the stairs. The angel followed her, glowing green.

"_You were asked once if you would give up your life of adventure for your husband-to-be_," it whispered. "_And you said through your actions that you would, but did Amy Pond lie?_"

"I don't lie."

Outside in the garden two children, two boys, were playing. Amy went to the window and watched them.

"What are their names?" she demanded.

"_That's up to you, but perhaps you didn't love them enough to name them_?"

"That's just stupid," Amy snapped. As she watched, Rory- older, but without a ponytail- came out of the garden shed carrying a bike. The boys stood up and cheered and laughed and begged to be allowed to be the first to ride it- and Amy saw Rory's hand, still scarred.

"_Can Amy Pond live with this_?" the angel said. "_An ordinary life, no monsters, no danger, no Doctor? A husband who might as well be a pet for all the autonomy he has? Boredom? Crushing, terrible boredom?_"

"Shut up!" Amy said, and watched through the window. The bike- a red bicycle with stablisers- lay on the grass, in front of a tall tree. Dangling from the tree was a rope swing, and beyond that a small climbing frame. And flowers, lots of flowers, sunflowers...

"I wouldn't lose the Doctor," she said. "He'd be back, he could still take us away to see the universe whenever we fancied it. It's not a black-and-white choice, you know, it won't be when it comes."

"_The Doctor takes companions home and forgets them, forgets all trace of them eventually, there were others before you he's never spoken of. Before long he will hardly remember you, Pond!_"

"He always forgets them?"

"_Yes_."

"Then why does he still have Martha Jones' phone number?"

The angel was silent.

* * *

Rory lay on the ground, not far from the entrance of the caves. He had lain on a cold floor in a cave once before, trying to imprint Amy's image in his mind before he died, but this time around things were different, and he was just unconcious, although his hand was red and burnt.

* * *

"_Beloved Amy,_" sang the angel, finding its voice again. "_You'll never know the Doctor's name_."

"So?"

"_And there's you, who've changed your name from little girl to troubled woman, and Rory, _red _in Gaelic, like your hair. The blue box that saved you, Rory's red, and the Green you might still be. Choose a colour, Amelia Pond!"_

"Now you're just babbling," snapped Amy. And she looked at the more recent pictures, at the smiling boys, and she thought of the lives they would like, of the people they might be.

"I'll never have to have a life without the Doctor," she said. "He won't forget us. Maybe he forgot people once, but now I don't think he does."

"_Oh, little girl, little child! You don't understand. If you _had_ to choose, your husband or that incredible, handsome, human alien, which would it be? Both have been wiped from existance, and you may only bring one back!_"

Amy heard noises, the shouting and laughter of children, and turned away from the angel and to the window. One of the children- the one not riding the bike- had climbed onto the rope swing and was swinging back and forward, trying to go as high as possible, trying to bring attention back to himself, because his father was busy with his brother. He swung, swung far too high, and lost his grip, and fell. He hit the ground with a thud.

"No!" Amy yelled, and she left the angel behind and ran to the back door. She charged down the garden, and Rory ran too, and the other little boy climbed off the bicycle and let it fall to the ground.

"John!" cried Amy, picking up the child. "John! John, talk to me! Are you okay?"

The boy took a deep intake of breath and nodded. He started to cry.

"Alec," Amy said, turning to the other boy, "Alec, I need you to be a big boy and bring mummy the first aid kit, okay? I know you know where it is."

The older boy nodded and scurried away.

Rory was carefully examining the back of John's head.

"It's okay," he said, "you're going to be okay."

Amy remembered the angel, and turned around to look at it. It was glaring. She glared back, daring it to talk, daring it to defy her.

"Not boredom. Never boredom. Not with my boys." she said.

It scowled at her, and vanished.

* * *

"She's a _what_?" Mort snarled.

"An Auton," the Doctor said. "Do keep up."

"And what is that exactly?"

"A robot. A particularly sophisticated one. Especially this one, she's like nothing I've ever seen. She can easily, easily survive gunshots, provided she has time to reboot herself. Which should be any time now, by the way, and she really won't be pleased..."

Mort looked uncertain.

"Lies!"

"I don't lie," said the Doctor.

Alya opened her eyes. Looked around. And rose.

* * *

Rory awoke to find Amy looking at him.

"You're okay!"

"Yes!" she screamed, and hugged him.

"Eek, watch the hand, watch the hand!"

"Sorry! I'm sorry! And I'm sorry I called you stupid before!" She took his good hand, and they began to run again...

* * *

"Hello, Auton Alya!" the Doctor said brightly. "I can't come to you, could you come to me?"

Alya climbed the stairs to the stage. Through the gunshot wounds circuitry was visible, and Mort stared in horror.

"Are there men with guns behind me?" the Doctor asked. He twisted round to see. "No? Fantastic. Alya, could you-"

But Alya had done it already. She forced Mort to the ground and held him there.

"Could someone please untie me?" the Doctor called. And slowly, one of the old men came and did so.

"Thank you! Right," he said to the bewildered prisoners, "give me a minute, and you all can go home."

Amy and Rory came running out of the cave, straight towards the stage.

"Amy! Rory!" the Doctor yelled. "You were in there?"

"Yes!" Amy yelled. "We escaped!"

"My brilliant, brilliant Ponds! Wait, and I'll hug you both!"

"You all will rot in hell," Mort snarled.

"Be quiet," the Doctor said. "Alya, may I take your back panel off?"

"Go ahead," she said.

The Doctor did so and looked at the circuitry inside. "Hmmm. This kind of job really needs the screwdriver, but as I'm without it..."

"Wait," Rory said, "Alya...you're an Auton."

"Yes," Alya said. "I am."

"Very cleverly designed, probably by humans, able to pass as a human as well, but broken," the Doctor said, fiddling with wires. "When you ended up here, you weren't working at all like you should, or you would had had no trouble at all escaping."

"She did fight better than any of us," Rory said.

"I was a warrior," Alya said. "One of a great army, but my heart is with those who created me."

"Same here," Rory said.

"Right!" the Doctor said, and closed the back panel again. "You're fixed. Working gun, working everything. Now, Alya, how d'ya feel about leading your fellow prisoners to safety?"

"I think that's a great idea," Alya said, actually smiling, and beneath her the prisoners smiled too, barely believing it.

Alya jumped from the stage, leaving the Doctor to hold Mort down.

"Your gun is set to stun," the Doctor told her. "You'll have no trouble getting out."

Alya smiled at him, smiled at Amy and Rory, and then she turned away and one by one the people followed her.

"And now I suppose there's you," the Doctor said to Mort. "You tried to kill my friends."

"You haven't won yet!" Mort snarled.

"No, I think I have," the Doctor said. And he got a faraway look on his face. "Whatever was in that cave-"

"Angels," said Amy.

"Angels, right, they changed people and turned them into soulless husks. And you sent people in there, sent them to their deaths. Hang on, angels?"

"Not the Weeping Angels, something else, they were on about 'freedom'..."

"Oh, right. Can you not see, Mort, how monsterous that was?"

"I was fighting a war!"

"So was I once."

Mort smiled. "And you, too, did monsterous things!"

"Yes," the Doctor said, "but I will never forget it, or forgive myself."

Amy and Rory shared a look.

"Anyway, I'm putting you away," the Doctor said. "In the caves, where you'll never be found again, where you'll have only these angels to keep you company, and they might take what little soul you have."

"I would rather die!"

"_Tough._"

"You worthless hypocrite," screamed Mort, "so concerned about death! But suffering, no, all are free to suffer! You prefer to see people suffer and not die, that's why you don't kill, _isn't it_!"

"Shut up!" Amy shouted at him. "You have no idea..."

"And inspiring the loyality of all the little children! Little children who'll grow up! These two survived the caves, they don't need to be saved by you anymore! But you love them, so you'll never be free!"

Lightening crackled in the sky. Mort's newfound powers were suddenly making the stage spin...

"Amy, Rory, get down." said the Doctor quietly.

They did. And lightening struck the stage, and part of it went up in flames.

"You'll never be free, Doctor, Oncoming Storm!" yelled Mort. "_From within, the monster eats_!"

And he lifted the fire and brought it down on himself, on the Doctor, but only one of them was plant and he burned in an instant. The Doctor rolled out of the way, down to the ground, and Amy and Rory too fled from the flames. The three of them collapsed together, the heat from the fire all around them, but too far away to hurt.

"Where's the TARDIS, Doctor?" Amy asked.

"In the Phoenix, I think," the Doctor said. "And I need the sonic screwdriver to seal the caves..."

They tried to get him to move and come with them. But he seemed too tired to move, so in the end it was Amy and Rory who went to find the screwdriver, and sealed the caves forever, and led the Doctor back to his time machine.


	6. Chapter 6

**From Within**  
**Epilogue**

The Doctor tapped the radio.

"All of the imprisoned humans made it home safely, and we'll be talking to them later," it was saying, "and negotiations continue with ambassadors from the Forest..."

He turned it off again and turned to Amy and Rory.

"Why was Mort a plant man?" Rory asked. "I mean, I'd have thought he'd have been a human."

"Good question," the Doctor said. "I don't know. The first person to say they were sorry that Gallifrey was gone, she was a tree-woman. Maybe that's why. Maybe not. I don't know."

Rory nodded.

"Let's see your hand," the Doctor said, and examined it with the sonic. "Seems to be healing nicely. They can perform wonders on New Earth."

"We could've stayed there longer," Amy said. "You seemed to like it."

"Nah, it's just nostalgia..."

There was silence in the room, apart from the humming of the console.

"You _are _a good person," Amy suddenly burst out. "So what if Mort was your...dark side, or whatever? He wasn't you, he was nothing like you!"

The Doctor looked away from them. "What happened in the caves, you two fought it, fought those angels- they may be related to the Weeping Angels, by the way, some mutated offspring of some kind, offering people the freedom to break away from what they love, feeding off that freedom..."

Amy and Rory waited, knowing the explanation was just a delaying tactic.

"But I didn't fight, I couldn't beat my own fears. I can't even remember what I did. But instead of turning me into the Green, I think those angels didn't know what to do with me, what with me being a almighty lord of time. So they created a whole different person, a green plant man fighting a war."

"You don't remember what you did?" Amy asked anxiously.

"No. I've lived for hundreds of years," he said with a sad smile. "Done so much, killed so many."

Amy shook her head. "You're still my friend." she said finally.

"Mine too," added Rory.

"Thank you," said the Doctor. He stared into space for a very long time, and said, "Leadworth?"

"Leadworth," said Amy.

The Doctor busied himself at the console, and Amy turned to Rory. "If we have boys, we should call them Alec and John."

"Okay," Rory said, trying to hide his delight, it didn't seem right with the Doctor so sad. "Sounds good to me." He paused, but curiousity overtook him. "What'd you see, in the caves?"

"You, me, kids. And the angel tried to get me to walk away from it."

"My one, it tried to convince me you didn't love me."

Amy kissed him. "It's good you're sensible," she said.

"It's good you are."

It was close to perfect happiness, but it couldn't be with the Doctor still sitting there gloomily. Amy went up to him.

"Cheer up," she said. "We all made it out alive."

"Except those killed in the flood, or by the Green, or by the caves."

"Oh," Amy said, and gestured to Rory to help her.

"Doctor," said Rory, "_we _forgive you. For...whatever."

"Yes, we do," Amy said.

The Doctor looked at them for a long time, and a very faint but still geniune smile arose. "Amy," he said thoughtfully. "What's your favourite colour?"

"Red," Amy said, paying no heed to the oddness of the question.

"And Rory, what's yours?"

"Um. Grey."

"Good," the Doctor said, and pulled down a console lever as they landed in Leadworth. "Good. All good. Let's go."

_We hear your hearts and know your face_  
_The beating echoes out through space_  
_Although in stone your life is set_  
_It seems your story's not done yet._  
_For we are trapped, and never sleep,_  
_Unlike those people that you keep._  
_Carry on, and fight, and win,_  
_You know the monster from within._


End file.
